Superhero movie roles can be life-changing, and two of TV’s most beloved stars nearly saw their careers taking massively different paths. In a new interview on the podcast Welcome to the OC, B—es!, actor Michael Cassidy reveals that fellow actors Charlie Hunnam and Sophia Bush were present at screen tests for Superman: Flyby, the McG-directed Superman movie that eventually collapsed, making way for Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns. Per Cassidy, he and Hunnam were among the young stars considered for Superman; Bush was in contention for Lois Lane. While neither Hunnam nor Bush landed the roles, they each ended up with massively successful parts on Sons of Anarchy and One Tree Hill, respectively.
In the interview, Cassidy recounted his experience on joining The O.C., the beloved FOX dramedy that McG executive produced. Before getting into the episode at hand (Season 2’s “The SnO.C.”), the 38-year-old actor explained to co-hosts Rachel Bilson and Melinda Clarke that a secretive audition led to him nearly becoming Superman and eventually getting cast as Zach Stevens on The O.C.
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Cassidy was flown out to screen test as the iconic DC Comics superhero, with the understanding that Warner Bros. intended to make a trilogy of Superman movies. Once he was there, he and several other actors tried on Superman’s iconic red-and-blue costume. “I put on the cape, I wore the suit, they built a set, me and Brandon (Routh), who ended up doing it,” Cassidy said while in conversation. “Charlie Hunnam was there. … We all wore the cape; we all got suits.”
Cassidy confirmed that he, Hunnam and Routh were all there specifically for the Superman role, as were Henry Cavill and Jared Padelecki. (Cavill would coincidentally go on to play the character starting with 2013’s Man of Steel onward.) Cassidy personally read with Bush, who was in the running for Lois Lane, the iconic newspaper reporter who serves as Superman’s love interest. Though he didn’t win the role of Clark Kent, he impressed the creatives enough that he earned a role on The O.C. Cassidy would also later appear as beloved Superman ally Jimmy Olsen in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, though that movie’s version of the character was divisive.
Superman: Flyby, which J.J. Abrams wrote, would eventually be scrapped when McG parted ways with the project. Superman Returns replaced it, with Routh portraying the Man of Steel and Kate Bosworth playing Lois Lane. As McG himself revealed in a previous episode of Welcome to the OC, B—es!, he left because he was afraid of flying and Warner Bros. was determined to shoot the next Superman movie in Australia.
“So I’m going to make the Superman movie and I’m getting ready to go, and they’re like, “We’re going to Australia, we’re going to Australia,’” McG said, as transcribed by ComicBook.com. “I literally remember telling the bosses at WB at that time, ‘I can’t go to Australia. I’m afraid of flying, I can’t do it.’ And it didn’t even register [with them]. They’re like, ‘You’re McG, you’ll be fine. You’re the boisterous, happy guy. You’re bouncing off the walls. You’ll be fine.’ Anyway, the plane’s on the tarmac — the Warners private jet meant to take me to Australia — and I can’t get on. I get fired off of Superman — rightfully so; they’ve got to make the movie in Australia. They put Bryan Singer on the movie.”
